First Chapter of "The House on Blackstone Hill"

 

You have been lied to about your very existence.

You have been lied to your entire life. Not just your life, but the lives of your parents, your grandparents, great-grandparents, all the way back for hundreds of generations. You and everyone you know have been lied to, and everything you think is sure in the world, every piece of firm ground upon which you have built your understanding of reality is nothing but shifting sands.

The world you think you live in, the world you assume to be so predictable and obvious, so mundane and average, is nothing but a thin veneer covering a much deeper, darker, dangerous world. The world you think you live in is a lie.

By and large, this lie was not perpetrated upon you and your forebearers deliberately. As time went on, the knowledge of things once well-known were forgotten, and then the memory of those things became mere myth and legend. Things became shrouded in the mist, and as so often happens, were lost. You will note, however, my Dear Friend, that I said this was by and large not deliberate. There were, and remain still today, cabals of very powerful, very influential, and very evil people across the world who realized it was to their benefit to allow these dark, dangerous things to remain shrouded by the mists and to keep you blinded by these lies.

But these people will be exposed as time goes on and my writings unfold. Of that you may be sure, Dear Friend.  

You no doubt are now wondering what are the terrible details of this great and dreadful secret? What is this huge lie that has been foisted upon you, that has made your entire life nothing but a foolish charade? What is this dark and dangerous world to which I refer?

It is this: There is an entire world of horror, a whole universe of terror, that exists with, is entwined around, and yet is just under the surface of your normal, quotidian existence. It is a perverse world that, warped as it may be, has its own internal logic, its own mores, norms, and values. This is an evil, twisted world ruled by innumerable demons from the depths of hell, bent on the torment and torture of every human being. Things you thought were mere children’s tales, fanciful myths and legends, or superstitious folklore are true.

True, and horrifyingly real.

These very real things are utterly dark and perversely evil. Your worst nightmares can’t possibly come close to the horrors that prowl about in the darkest corners of the world and of the human soul, looking for ways to create unending anguish and suffering, death, and destruction. The most horrible acts that humans have ever committed against each other can never compare to the horror this world delights in creating. You cannot imagine evil of this level, you are incapable of cognizing it, your mind simply cannot grasp malevolence and wickedness of this level; there is scarcely even language adequate to describe it. It is almost a language unto itself.

To know the terror that slithers around your carefully constructed life may drive you insane with an overabundance of knowledge, so if you want to turn away now, if you’d rather live a life of blissful ignorance cradled in the lap of obliviousness, then perhaps that’d be best. Yet, if you’re one of the very brave few who thirst for knowledge and want to know the truth above all else, read every word of what I have to say very carefully, my Dear Friend.

This world of which I speak is one ruled over by legions of demons, evil fallen angels tormented by their Satanic master to a hatred that has become madness. Their only wish is to inflict unending misery on humanity, whom they hold responsible for the fall. They use as many different fell tools in this torture as possible, so it is also a world in which monsters, evil spirits, and nightmarish creatures beyond counting are all horribly true. These vile creatures lurk in the deep, dark shadows of the world, creatures used to horrify, plague, or simply slaughter as many humans as possible.

It is a world of devils, too, but please note, Dear Friend, that demons and devils are not at all the same things. Demons are fallen angels, imbued with massive supernatural powers, whereas devils are twisted little creatures the demons themselves have made to further their goals, having taken them from creation. Demons cannot create any new life, they can only pervert what already exists and use it for their own evil purposes. This is what devils are, horrific beasts twisted and turned by the wicked power of a demon into a supernatural, nearly immortal monster, ever bent on death and destruction. No two devils are alike and come in as many different shapes and sizes as the twisted imagination of their masters can conceive.

Ghosts are true, too, and are used to terrorize people, to cause as much psychic angst as possible for the tortured delight of some wretched demon. These are the souls of very evil people whom the lords of hell believed would be even more tormented by being bound to a place they loved in a material world they can no longer interact with. Sometimes these spirits will be released from hell for a time to specifically torture a surviving loved one. And sometimes these are the spirits of otherwise innocent people killed in a place so powerfully demonic they cannot escape, causing that innocent soul endless anguish. I have more, much more, to write about ghosts, but this will suffice for now.

Vampires and werewolves are also very real, and for as horrifically terrifying as they are normally portrayed to be in modern culture, they are far more so in real life. More on them later as well.

Witches and wizards? Yes, they also exist, but perhaps not as you expect. Magic can only be used by gaining that power directly from a demon, so there are no good witches and wizards. They are certainly not cute little children going to quaint castles to learn these skills. These are evil, perverted people who have cruelly sacrificed the lives of many cute little children to gain these powers, which they use for their own evil purposes.

Succubi? Incubi? Ghouls? Yes, they’re all real. All of them. These are all demons with their own specialized ways in which they torture and torment humans.

Zombies? Zombies are real, too, but don’t get too impressed by that. A corpse can only become re-animated by a demon or a magic-user, and they are mindless tools used for the most mundane of tasks. They also have one specific weakness: They’re rotting flesh. The magic that reanimates a corpse does nothing to prevent normal putrefaction, so eventually, they will literally fall to pieces. That, and they tend to freeze in the winter and attract predators in the summer, so all in all zombies are not nearly as amazing as modern culture would suggest. Nonetheless, they serve their purpose.

Mummies? Yes, of course, mummies are real. When animated they’re just well-dressed zombies.

Aliens? No. Aliens don’t exist. We are painfully alone in the universe. However, there are terrors that exist in the deep reaches of space, terrors that if you were to see would drive you instantly mad. Your throat would turn raw from your screams and you would shred your face bloody trying to claw out your eyes to make the terror end. We will talk more about these, later.

Perhaps the most terrifying creature of all turns out to be the demonically dedicated, Satanic worshipping human.

Truly, deeply evil people are simply a fact, and while you are by now accustomed to the idea in the modern world of violent gang members or homicidal dictators, you may not realize so much of what appears random acts of violence is in fact deliberately directed from afar – or, actually, from below. Across the world there are small covens of witches and wizards that worship Satan, drawing on him for their power, who have committed unthinkable acts of horror in furtherance of their magic. There are also individual worshippers scattered everywhere ready to do his will and who worship him through acts of serial rape and murder. These people work very hard to create a thin veneer of normalcy so that no one would ever think they bowed down to the Evil One himself.

Yet perhaps even more terrifying than these are the large numbers of people in positions of power – in governments across the world, in all the media, in universities, in the military, everywhere – dedicated to this evil, who work hand in hand with the demonic forces for the end of all things. It may horrify you to realize how organized this evil truly is. It is these people who for hundreds of years have manipulated governments, started wars and revolutions, encouraged genocide, all in name of furthering their Satanic master. It is these people, more even than the covens and the lone wolves, who are the most dangerous of all demonic followers.

And what of me, Dear Friend? What of your humble storyteller, this writer with the strange name of Antonio Ricardo Scozze? Surely by now you are wondering how I have all this dreadful knowledge, how is it I am trusted with these dark secrets, how do I come to possess this clandestine information? Ah, yes. I tell you in deepest truth, the way I come to this knowledge is a story that is both great and terrifying, terrific and appalling in and of itself. That will be a tale that unfolds slowly through my various stories, in many of which I am personally involved.

But this is a tale for a much later time. For now, let us turn our attention to a man in his office, contemplating his career…